A/N Hello guys. Umm, I just really want to apologize after all these years. I really apologize for not being able to update this story. I know how much I suck. I've been trying to update ever since I stopped. I still have the draft for the eighteenth chapter but I always hated the chapter. So I kept repeating it that it got to the point that I have five versions of that single chapter. Then I graduated and I stopped so that I could just rest, not just from writing but from school as well. Well, I didn't schedule my time very well and by the time I was ready to start writing again, I already started working and let me tell you how hard it is to juggle my time. There's so many reasons that I could tell you but one of the biggest reason is that I lost interest in it. Not in the sense that I don't like the story anymore. I lost interest in the sense that I stopped writing for so long that I got so used to it. So I'm really sorry for being a jerk.

Hopefully, I could continue it. I started writing it out again. I updated it from the start and added some more info and changed some things. So to the people who have read it before, hopefully you will read it again for those added moments.

I will update from the first chapter every two days. Well except the weekends. Just the weekdays. Don't worry. I'm almost done with the story. I'm already nearing the end and I'm just fine tuning it.

So, here we go again.

First Mistake

Third Person

"Do you like anyone, Seaweed Brain?" A curly blonde 12-year-old girl asks out of the blue. Her stormy grey eyes staring at the blue sky.

"Like?" He asks confusedly. "What do you mean, Wise Girl?" The boy with the messy black hair looks up from the book he is trying to study from. His sea-green eyes see his best friend still gazing at the sky above her while cool spring air blows her hair like a picturesque scene from an artwork.

"You know. Like somebody you want to kiss?" She giggles shyly at her statement before looking at him, her eyes full of mirth.

"Aren't we a bit young for that?" He asks childishly and the girl just gives him a dry look.

"We're going to be thirteen this summer and besides, a lot of the people in school had their first kiss already before sixth grade." It is his turn to roll his eyes. "So, who do you like?" She giggles once more.

He looks at her, contemplating her inquiry. Her question is supposed to be simple. Even with the boy's small comprehension in almost everything, anybody could understand what she was insinuating. However, her question is not something he could answer easily.

You, he thinks. This is what makes his answer so complicated. How could he answer when he does not know what will happen to them if he confesses his heart out? They had been best friends ever since they were three years old.

He still remembers that fated day way back when. The little boy was enjoying playing on the sand at the playground. His dad was just a yard away, talking to his mom on the phone. He was trying to create a sand castle when a little girl sat across him and declared that he was going to be her best friend. It was a weird way to make friends but they were never normal to begin with.

He didn't question her at all. He looked at her for a second or two and then started playing with her. He even introduced her to his dad and said that she is his best friend now. His dad just smiled at him and shook the girl's hand when she offered it to him.

They had become inseparable ever since. It worked out perfectly when they found out that they were only two blocks away. He really enjoyed being with her. It wasn't long after that he felt something different about her, something more.

After being best friends for seven years, the boy started to notice the rapid beats of his heart. His heart would flip every time they would touch or bump each other. Her smiles were too radiant for him that he couldn't help but blush every time she graced him with it.

He never meant it to happen. He never meant to think of his best friend that way especially that they are so young. However, the black-haired boy just couldn't help it. He couldn't help but marvel at her beauty and intelligence. He knew that his feelings for her is too far gone that he knows she will be the death of him. He couldn't help but feel warm every time his blonde-friend would call him Seaweed brain. It is supposed to be an insult but to his ears, it is an endearment. It always made him feel special since she knows so much about him her insults are attuned to what he loves.

His feelings for her gets deeper and deeper as they spend their time together almost every minute of their lives. It was always the simple antics and quirks that the boy had come to love. Take this moment for example. They are at their favorite playground where they met before.

They are leaning against an old oak tree and the blonde-haired beauty had literally dragged the boy to study for their finals outside since it's such a fine day. Instead of studying, the sea-green eyed boy would occasionally flit his eyes towards her and gaze at her beauty. He loves the way her button up nose would crinkle in annoyance every time she finds something she couldn't understand. He loves the way her eyebrows would meet every time she would concentrate. Most of all, he loves her laugh. The laugh that could make his day go better no matter what the problem might be.

He wanted to confess how much he likes her that he will do anything she asks him to do. However, he is afraid. He has always been easily scared. She's always been the brave one even if she is deathly afraid of spiders. She was the one who would stand up to bullies and punch them if they annoy her. So, how could he tell her how much he likes her when he couldn't even stand up to a barking dog?

So instead of saying he likes her, the black-haired boy just shrugs his bony shoulders and continued reading his textbook. However, the young girl obviously doesn't believe him.

He had been weird lately and she could tell easily if something is different with him. She has discovered that he has been writing a lot and she couldn't help but be surprised and think a miracle had happened because she knows he has dyslexia. What shocked her further was when she read one entry in his notebook. He was confessing how much he likes somebody. This caught the curiosity of his best friend because he never showed any indication that he likes anybody.

She nudges at him. "Come on. I know you like somebody. Is it Nancy?" The boy wrinkles his nose in disgust and she laughs at his expression. Nancy is a close relative to the Hulk except she wasn't a shade of green. She was more like the red Hulk.

"Well, I like somebody." She declares suddenly and the boy turns his gaze back to his best friend. He turned his head so quickly that he is a bit afraid that he got whiplash. He is trying very hard not to show his anticipation. He knows that he has no chance with her but that doesn't mean he wants somebody to take her. He is the only one who could understand her completely and the always one who could see her beauty.

Most of the guys just noticed her lately ever since she hit puberty but he has always seen how beautiful she was. Her golden hair that had been always been curly that he had deemed it "princess curls." She always put it in a ponytail because she doesn't like how it looks. He always protested that it is more beautiful if it cascaded down but she never listens to him. As the day passes on, she became more beautiful that he wonders if it is a sin. Guys are staring at her lustfully even though they are just in middle school. Sooner or later, she would notice this and she would leave him for better friends.

He knows that he won't be able to control who she likes but he still wants to know. "Who?" He asks nonchalantly but deep down the sea-green eyed boy was squirming. He knows very well that it will be somebody popular and not him. Who could blame her? The boy doesn't scream good looking when his whole face is full of acne at the tender age of twelve. He also opts for glasses and he still questions himself to this day why he had to pick a frame that is big rimmed that it enlarges his eyes to the size of the eyes of an owl. No one would like him. If it weren't for the girl and his two guy best friends, he would be a loner. Then again, all of them are a bit of an outcast but sooner or later, she would have to move out of their group.

"Luke," she answers blushingly. He would have taken note how cute she is when she is blushing but right now, his heart is clenching. Of course, it had to be Luke. With his sandy blonde hair and sky-blue eyes, most of the girls would easily swoon every time he would walk past them. The boy thought she could see his cockiness and how Luke is such a player but I guess not even being the most intelligent in the class could save her from Luke's charms.

Luke was 2 years older than them but he's still an eighth grader. He's your usual I'm too good school and got held back multiple times. Still, the people praise the ground he walks on and even the teachers would give him slack. He is still the football captain even though he's a knucklehead. It's not like the young black-haired boy is any better but at least he got his priorities straight. It's not like it's the young boy's fault he is bad at school. With a severe case of dyslexia and ADHD, it was a miracle he made it this far.

"Oh." It was the only thing the boy could muster to say. His lack of enthusiasm is so evident that the girl did not miss his intonation.

"What's wrong?" She bumps at him again.

"Nothing," he tries to say but the girl just gives him her famous intimating glare. It's not like he's scared of her, mostly. It's just he finds her so beautiful that he almost can't say no to her.

"Well, it's Luke Castellan, Wise Girl." The boy says and the disgust on his voice is so obvious.

"What do you mean by that?" Her voice rises a bit and the boy know she's ready to defend him.

"Well, you shouldn't like him. Everyone knows that he's just a playboy. You can't deny that the number of hearts he has broken is higher than his test scores." He says knowingly. "He's no good."

The girl stands up quickly. The anger in her face is obvious. "What the hell? Aren't you being too unfair?" She turns away and walks for a bit before facing him.

"Who are you to judge him? Who are you to say he sucks at tests when you are no better." Her voice rising each second. "Who said you can tell me who to like or not?" she calls out and her glare is so harsh that he flinches under it.

"Wise gi—," he tries to explain but the girl is on a roll.

"Just so you know, I didn't expect for him to like me back. I just told you I like him and you just shot me down?" She exclaims at him. "And just so you know, he knows he is bad at school that's why he came up to me to ask me to tutor him!" She continues to defend him. "He wants to graduate already but it's you people who judge him harshly are the ones that is holding him back!" Her shouts have become more evident that people are starting to look at the two twelve-year-old.

He doesn't notice the scoff coming out of his mouth until Annabeth's glare intensified. He couldn't believe that she is falling for that kind of scheme. "You know that's just a ploy!" The boy accused and it's not like he said without any basis. He had seen how many tricks the eighth grader had laid before just to get a girl.

After thinking about it, it strikes him that Luke's next target was her and he gets mad at that as well. He got angry from the fact that the girl he likes will not be only taken by some jerk but the said girl is defending the said jerk. "He just chose you as her next target, Wise Girl. The girl who is still a virgin because she's a prude." He said to her while standing up.

That did not go well with his best friend as her face turned visibly red. She slaps him viciously that his glasses flew out of his face. It didn't hurt him physically though, but it sure stung him. The fact, that they had been friends for such a long time and it is only one guy who could separate them and not let his best friend trust him, made him want to cry.

"Shut up." She says in a deadly whisper and he could hear the hate coming from her. It surprises him greatly since she only uses it when she's shouting at the people who bullies him. He couldn't believe he could be at the receiving end of it. He couldn't comprehend how trying to protect her made her hate him.

"You don't know anything, Percy. Stop being jealous of him just because he's better than you." Her words fly out of her mouth without filter and that hit him hard. Even though it was true he was jealous of Luke, he couldn't believe his best friend used it against him. His best friend of nine years decided that it's better to defend the guy she knew was a player than her best friend who had been there through her parent's divorce.

"Okay, Annabeth." He whispers barely audibly, afraid that she might hear his voice quaver.

He crouches down and picks up his things and left her there. The sea-green eyes are bloodshot by the time he arrives home and so are the grey eyes.

Percy apologizes the next day.